Focus on Germany London Office November 2009 The SPD and the Debacle of the 2009 German Federal Elections: An opportunity for renewal The result of the 2009 German federal elections was disastrous for the German Social Democratic Party(SPD). Germany ’ s oldest party slumped to its worst re­sult in the history of the Federal Republic, polling only 23% of the vote(down from 34% in 2005)(SBD 2009a and 2009b). The authors, William E Paterson and James Sloam, however, argue that this devastating defeat must be placed into the wider context of long-term developments in German and European politics: the decline of the German catch-all parties(and rise of the three smaller parties); and, the changing role of political parties in general and social democratic par­ties in modern politics. The election result is not the end or even the beginning of the end of social democracy. What the SPD now needs are a new generation of charismatic leaders, a post crisis narrative and new more porous and responsive structures. William E Paterson and James Sloam* The result of the 2009 German federal elections was disastrous for the German Social Democ­ratic Party(SPD). Germany ’ s oldest party slumped to its worst result in the history of the Federal Republic, polling only 23% of the vote (down from 34% in 2005)(SBD 2009a and 2009b). Furthermore, the historically low turnout disguised the depths of the SPD ’ s result in 2009, as the party lost over six million voters who either stayed at home or switched party (almost 40% of the 16 million Germans who had * William E Paterson is Honorary Professor of German and European Politics at Aston University. Dr James Sloam is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. voted for the party only four years earlier). For German party politics – unused to political land­slides – this marked an extraordinary turn of events. Trust in the SPD ’ s competence, identifi­cation with its values, and belief in its credibility all nosedived. The loss among younger voters was particularly damaging. Whilst SPD-inspired reforms to the welfare state(particularly to un­employment benefits and provisions for retire­ment) blurred the boundaries with the centre­right, strategic uncertainty(illustrated by the SPD ’ s approach to the Left Party leading to the debacle following the Hessen state elections in 2008) undermined the party ’ s credibility. The re­Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung London Office 66 Great Russell Street London W C1B 3BN Phone+44(0)20 7025 0990 Fax+44(0)20 7242 9973 e-mail website info@feslondon.org.uk www.feslondon.org.uk